The head of the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, has released US$15 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help fund global efforts to contain the virus responsible for COVID-19. The announcement came as the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the global risk of a coronavirus outbreak to “very high”, its […]
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Spanish courts must ensure that clauses in mortgage loan contracts providing for the application of a variable interest rate are clear and understandable
If the court concludes that such terms are unfair, it may replace it with a statutory rate applicable on a supplementary basis in order to protect the consumers concerned from the particularly harmful consequences which could result from the cancellation of the loan contract. In its judgment in Case C-125/18 Gómez del Moral Guasch, delivered […]
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The European Commission will address the issue of Coronavirus at its meeting on 5th March
A meeting of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety will be held on 5th March to discuss new updates on the issue of the coronavirus (COVID-19). This meeting is expected to address the following points: Update by the Commission on the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation Amending Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European […]
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E-commerce: Council adopts new rules for exchange of VAT payment data
The Council today adopted a set of rules to facilitate detection of tax fraud in cross-border e-commerce transactions. The new measures will enable member states to collect, in a harmonised way, the records made electronically available by payment service providers, such as banks. In addition, a new central electronic system will be set up for […]
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Council of the European Union forward look: 2 – 15 March 2020
The Council of the EU is the institution representing the member states’ governments. Also known informally as the EU Council, it is where national ministers from each EU country meet to adopt laws and coordinate policies. Below we offer the agreed agenda for the next two weeks: Environment Council, 5 March 2020 The Council will adopt conclusions on […]
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Informal meeting of defence ministers, 4-5 March 2020
An informal meeting of EU defence ministers will be held in Zagreb on 4 and 5 March 2020, and will be organized by the Ministry of Defence. An informal meeting of EU defence ministers is a high-level meeting, where ministers have the opportunity to exchange views on the latest developments in the field of the […]
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EU mobilises €10 million more to respond to severe Desert Locust outbreak in East Africa
The European Commission has announced today €10 million more to respond to one of the worst Desert Locust outbreak in decades in East Africa. The outbreak could have devastating consequences on food security in an already vulnerable region where 27.5 million people suffer from severe food insecurity and at least 35 million more are at […]
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COVID-19: ECDC updates case definition for EU surveillance
At this stage, it is likely that Europe will see similar developments like in Italy, varying from country to country. To address these scenarios, ECDC constantly updates its risk assessments for Europe and provides guidance for the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries and authorities to respond to the outbreak. Following the recent […]
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The Court of Justice of the European Union ordered Greece to pay 3.5 million euros for having been slow in implementing EU law
By judgment of 23 April 2015, the Court of Justice held that, by having failed to designate as vulnerable zones a number of zones – including those of the Plain of Thessaly and of the river Evros (see paragraph 15 of the judgment in Case C-149/14) – characterised by the presence of bodies of surface […]
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